The one thing about old European churches is that they were once the burial places of the rich and famous. And still today, in the case of royalty. Delft is a beautiful old city that is also bright and lively and modern at the same time. And its centre is dominated by two very old churches, the Ould Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk. Continue reading “Site 97: Delft’s Ould & Nieuw Kerks”→

How many cemeteries have their own castle? Schoonselhof does, although it was initially a country pleasure house (and still looks that way, if not worse for wear). Between 1540 and 1871 it had 20 owners, but when the last died a bachelor, the city eventually bought it with intent of making it a municipal cemetery. Continue reading “Site 96: Antwerp’s Schoonselhof Cemetery”→

The biggest Commonwealth cemetery in the world. During our tour of the Ypres battlefields, we weren’t quite circling around it, but everywhere we went we could see it in the distance. The cemeteries and other sites we visited were leading up to this one, following the history of the war, from the first two battles of Ypres, to the final battles at Passchendaele. Continue reading “Site 95: Tyne Cot Cemetery”→

There are always at least two sides in every war, but one thing that is common to both is having to deal with the dead. Cemeteries and other mass graves spring up out of a matter of necessity. In my previous post I mentioned how many small cemeteries I saw from the train window as we approached Ieper, I did not mention how all of them were from the Allied Continue reading “Site 94: Langemark German War Cemetery”→

Sitting on the train from Kortrijk, the flat Belgian countryside rolls by much like any other. But the small military cemeteries, easily spotted with their white, uniform headstones, are what quickly jolts you into reality that this is the place where upon countless numbers of people were killed, Continue reading “Site 93: Ypres’ Essex Farm Cemetery”→

So originally I had planned two days for Bruges, being such an iconic place. But in the end I decided to spend one day here, and had planned it around the weather, as I knew there was going to be a snow and a rain day day while I was here. But the forecast kept changing, and due to a scheduled tour to Ypres/Ieper on Continue reading “Site 92: Bruges’ Central Cemetery”→

Brussels gets a bad rap as a tourist destination, but I have to say I really enjoyed the city and wished I had spent more time there. One reason being is that there are a lot of interesting cemeteries here, and I didn’t have enough time to see them all, as they are quite spread out throughout the city. Brussels cemetery is a huge cemetery and I was pleasantly surprised Continue reading “Site 91: Brussels Cemetery”→

Wow, is this a beautiful cemetery. This is the one that was on my list from the very beginning, I’ve been wanting to come to Belgium to photograph this cemetery for sometime. I knew I was off to a good start when, the moment I entered, I Continue reading “Site 90: Brussels’ Laeken Cemetery”→

This cemetery was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t even on my initial list of cemeteries to visit in Belgium, but it turned out to be one of the best (so far). If Ghent has a Pere Lachaise-like Cemetery, this is it. It’s a fairly large cemetery, but it’s easy to get around and explore. It was established as a landscape garden cemetery, so it is a really nice place to wander and walk around. Continue reading “Site 89: Ghent’s Western Cemetery”→

You know you’ve hit it big time when people start referring to you as the base standard, such as a place being the ‘mecca’ of ______, or then the more specific, the (specific person, place, or thing) of (the specialty). When it comes to cemeteries, the most famous (to the lay person) would probably be Pere Lachaise in Paris, Continue reading “Site 88: Ghent’s Campo Santo”→